Catholics` Poll Shows A Big Rift

SOUTH BEND, IND. — Members of Catholics Speak Out have put their money where their mouths are.

Along with supporting groups and individuals, they spent $30,000 to have the Gallup Organization determine whether their gauge of America`s Catholic climate was right or wrong.

They have long believed that U.S. Roman Catholics are drifting further and further from their leaders, the church`s American bishops, particularly where those leaders stand against birth control, abortion, ordination of women, married priests, divorce and remarriage.

But such feelings are not surprising for groups such as Catholics Speak Out, Call to Action, the Women`s Ordination Conference and CORPUS, the national association that supports the idea of married priests. Their call for ``reform`` is aimed at breaking down those long-standing church practices.

As the U.S. bishops prepared for a national meeting at the University of Notre Dame this week-to be highlighted by their first group discussion of a proposed pastoral on women`s concerns and sexism in the church-the ``reform`` groups readied a surprise greeting.

They commissioned a Gallup Poll, a nationwide random survey May 5-17 of 802 Catholics, 427 women and 375 men.

Let`s cut to the chase: In response to a question whose wording was anything but wishy-washy, 67 percent agreed that ``it would be a good thing if women were allowed to be ordained as priests.``

Broken into age categories, 80 percent of those under 35 agreed, but only 50 percent of those 55 and older did.

When the question of empowering women in the church was asked differently, 87 percent supported women in the role of altar servers, which is already done without formal approval in many parishes. Support ranged from 80 percent for women deacons to 58 percent for women bishops.

In the strongest favorable responses:

- 87 percent said couples should be allowed to make their own decisions about forms of birth control.

- 83 percent said the bishops should approve use of condoms to prevent AIDS.

- 81 percent said good Catholics can ``publicly disagree with church teaching.``

- 74 percent said Catholics who have divorced and remarried without an annulment should be permitted to receive communion.

On abortion issues, 41 percent said abortion ``can be a morally acceptable choice`` in many or all circumstances, and 41 percent said it could be ``only in rare circumstances.`` In addition, 52 percent felt abortion should be legal in many or all circumstances, and 70 percent said Catholics could vote ``in good conscience`` for candidates who support legal abortion.

One part of the broad-ranging survey cited the worsening shortage of priests in the U.S. and resultant closing of parishes.

Laypersons should be allowed to keep parishes open, ``with visiting priests administering the sacraments when possible,`` 89 percent of the respondents said.

When explicitly offered as solutions to the priest shortage problem, opening the priesthood to include women got 63 percent support, and permitting married priests got 75 percent.

The latter result was released as part of a CORPUS conference last weekend in Chicago. When the question was phrased differently, 70 percent favored ``allowing Catholic priests to marry and continue to function as priests.``

The full poll was disclosed at a news conference of the ``reform`` groups Thursday at the outset of the bishops` meeting at Notre Dame.

Sister Maureen Fiedler, co-director of Catholics Speak Out, said the poll shows that when it comes to issues such as birth control, abortion, divorce and remarriage, Catholics ``have developed a new ethic different from that articulated by the bishops.``

She urged the bishops to scrap their women`s pastoral and instead listen to the voices of Catholics who ``clearly believe that their experience of marriage and family life is neither understood nor respected by a hierarchy that is composed solely of celibate males.``

Though many of the poll findings may surprise the church leaders, some findings surprised those who commissioned the poll.

For example, though 78 percent felt homosexuals should have equal opportunities for jobs, up from 58 percent in a similar poll in 1977, only 46 percent agreed that gay and lesbian sexual relations ``can be morally acceptable.``

And on social issues, the respondents distanced themselves from classic liberal lines: 76 percent favored stronger U.S. limitations on immigrants, and 66 percent wanted all 50 states to bring back the death penalty.

They clearly wanted domestic reform, even at the expense of foreign aid:

74 percent said they would pay more taxes to get a national health care program; 62 percent favored military intervention in countries where U.S. economic interests were ``seriously threatened``; and 55 percent said the U.S. has no obligation to give economic aid to needy nations.

Arguably the biggest surprise: Despite the discontent shown in other responses, 84 percent said Pope John Paul II was doing a good job.